Darkest Daughter
by Rebellious Faerie
Summary: Four young faeries attending the Faerie Academy form a strange, but strong friendship. Will they be able to maintain that friendship even when one of them continues to hide the secret behind her, her cruel cousin and traitorous aunt? R&R PLEASE!
1. Chapter 1

The halls of the Faerie Academy were filled with the noise of its students. Older students let out excited cries as they saw their friends and ran to hug them. First year students rushed frantically through the maze of hallways as they desperately tried to find their way to their next class.

Lithine, a first year light faerie, walked quickly through the halls while studying a map of the school. Despite the map, she was having trouble finding her way to her beginner's spell casting class. She looked up to check her surroundings and muttered curses under her breath when she saw a fork in the hallway she was in. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't see the air faerie until she ran into her. Both Lithine and the other girl let out small yelps as they collided and their books tumbled to the floor.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" cried Lithine as she bent down to help the air faerie pick up the fallen books.

"No that's okay," replied the air faerie in a shy voice. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"I wasn't either." Both faeries smiled at each other. "I'm Lithine by the way."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Ariella. I'm a first year here"

"Me too." Lithine smiled. Suddenly, a thought came to her. "Do you by any chance know where room 428 is? It's the beginner's spell casting class."

The light faerie watched as Ariella pulled a map like hers out of her book bag along with a schedule of classes. The air faerie glanced over it. A grin spread over her face and she looked up at Lithine.

"How ironic. That's my next class." she said.

"Really?" asked Lithine happily. Ariella nodded. "Want to walk together?"

"Sure," replied the air faerie. Lithine smiled. Maybe now she would have someone to talk to.

It took all of the girls' passing period to find the classroom. When they entered, they were the last people in their seats. An older light faerie smiled at them as she stepped forward from behind the desk which was placed in front of the room.

"Good morning students and welcome to your first class of beginner's spell casting." Her voice was soft and quiet. It was the kind of voice which would have put Lithine to sleep if the subject had been boring. Luckily, the class was quite the opposite.

As Ms. Myra, or as the students called her, Ms. M explained what they would be learning in the class, Lithine took the chance to observe her classmates. It was a small class with about twenty faeries in it. Other than Ariella, who was seated next to Lithine, there were about five other air faeries. A group of four earth faeries sat on the opposite side of the room from the two dark faeries in the class. The six fire faeries sat whispering in the very back of the class, no doubt plotting their next set of pranks. Two other light faeries sat on Lithine's right. Lithine was surprised that there were no water faeries.

"They all probably got put in the advanced class," she thought. Water faeries always were the best students.

Ms. M was just about to hand out their first assignment when the door of the classroom opened. Lithine was startled to see a small dark faerie walk in. She wore a simple purple tank top with a black skirt. Her book bag was thrown over her shoulder and she held a note in one hand. Without looking at her classmates, she strode over to Ms. M and gave her the note. The teacher glanced down at the faerie before beginning to read it.

"Thank you," she said to the dark faerie. "I'll talk to you about what you missed after class. Go ahead and have a seat."

As the dark faerie strode toward the empty desk in the back of the class, Lithine watched her. The other two dark faeries glared at the newcomer when she passed. The little dark faerie returned their angry looks before sitting down.

Lithine turned her attention back to the front of the class as Ms. M began to explain how to complete the assignment. All thoughts about the little faerie disappeared from her mind as she listened to the lesson.

The rest of the day flew by for Lithine. She had been glad to find that she and Ariella had several classes together. They had also met a lively fire faerie in their potions class by the name of Nova. The three girls were now relaxing in the school courtyard during their free time before dinner.

Lithine studied her newfound friends as they chatted about classes. Over the course of the day, she had gotten to know them better. Ariella, though shy at first, was quite clever and Lithine was very glad about this since math had never been her strong point. Nova on the other hand was very different from her quiet air faerie friend. She was energetic and, like all fire faeries, very mischievous. She had a short temper and often spoke her mind.

Just then, the bell which summoned the students to dinner rang. Still taking idly, the three friends made their way to the dining hall.

The room where the students ate was packed by the time Lithine and the others got there. Quickly, they grabbed trays and hurried into line. The line was moving very slowly and the friends wished the people in front of them would hurry up.

Suddenly, the doors to the cafeteria were slammed open and five dark faeries stalked inside. The room became silent for a second as the faeries watched the newcomers before returning to its original noise level. Being a light faerie, Lithine had a natural dislike for dark faeries and she eyed the five warily.

The dark faeries were older, probably in their fifth or sixth year. The five grabbed trays and without a second thought, made their way up to the front of the line. Lithine, Nova and Ariella watched as they approached a first year dark faerie and cut in front of her. Startled, the little faerie stumbled backward. One of the older faeries smiled evilly as she stuck her foot out. The little faerie let out a small cry as she tripped and landed hard on the tiled floor.

"Dark faeries," muttered Nova with a shake of her head. "Always causing trouble. They're even worse than us fire faeries."

"You have to admit that that's pretty bad," teased Ariella as Nova elbowed her.

"Hey Ariella," said Lithine as she studied the fallen dark faerie. "Isn't that the dark faerie that came into class late this morning?"

"I don't know. Maybe," the air faerie paused as she tried to get a good look at the girl. "It is."

When Nova asked what they were talking about, the girls quickly explained what had occurred during their spell casting class. When they had gotten their food, they went and sat down at an empty table. When Lithine looked around, she saw that the little dark faerie was seated at an empty table not far from them. It puzzled the light faerie that the girl had no friends. She hadn't seemed like a particularly mean faerie. She was actually a very pretty girl with raven black hair which contained several purple streaks in it. Her amethyst eyes warily watched the people around her.

Lithine shrugged and turned back to her food. She was a light faerie so she shouldn't care about how a dark faerie was treated. She stopped eating and started to think, something she rarely did seriously.

"I shouldn't care," she thought. "Or should I?"

Mithana the dark faerie sighed as she made her way to the Dark Faerie Dormitory. It had been an awful first day. She had made no friends but then again, that wasn't surprising. Who wanted to be a friend with a dark faerie?

The little faerie stopped in front of the dark purple and black door which signaled the beginning of dark faerie territory. No faerie of another element was allowed to enter. Mithana sighed and pushed the door open.

The door revealed a staircase which spiraled upward. Every few steps or so there would be a door with a number on it. First years were always put in the lower level rooms while the older students were in the higher ones. Mithana passed the first five before entering into room 6.

Each room in the dorm contained two beds and a large desk for studying. Despite the fact that most students ate in the dining hall, there was a small kitchen connecting to each room. The walls were a dark purple, symbolizing her element. A window near the desk overlooked one of the school courtyards.

Though most students had roommates, Mithana did not. She was glad for she liked peace and quiet. Moving over to the desk, the dark faerie sat down and pulled out her beginner's spell casting homework out of her backpack. She sat staring at the half completed sheet as she recalled the occurrence in the dining hall. She closed her eyes as she remembered the embarrassment she had felt when those five girls had pushed her.

Oh she knew who they were all right. They were a group of dark faeries who took all their pleasure from bullying others. Their names were Sirine, Ada, Bethany, Elaine, and Dyra. The only reason Mithana knew this was because Sirine, their leader, was her older cousin.

This was one of the main reasons Mithana had no friends amongst the dark faeries of the school. It was well known that Sirine and her friends loved to humiliate her younger cousin. Anyone with any sense would want to stay away from her for just that reason.

The little faerie sighed. Of course there were more reasons that people disliked her but she didn't even want to think about them. Casting these depressing thoughts aside, the girl returned to her homework. Perhaps tomorrow would be at least a little bit better.


	2. Chapter 2

Despite Mithana's hopes for a better day, the little faerie's morning was awful. Her first class had been beginner's spell casting where she had failed to conjure up a ball of darkness. Everyone, even the teacher, had smirked when she had failed to do what many children of her element could do. The only thing that had kept her from crying was knowing that she didn't even try all that hard to complete the task.

Her next class had been flying lessons. She thought that perhaps this would go better as she was an excellent flyer. It had actually gone fairly well until the teacher asked them to get into groups. They instantly began to sort into pairs however; there was an odd number in the class. Of course Mithana had been left out. She didn't even want to think about potions class.

The young faerie was walking dejectedly down the hall toward her locker when she suddenly found herself surrounded by the last people she ever wanted to see. Her older cousin Sirine and her friends laughed when they saw a look of fear cross the little faerie's face.

"Well, well girls now what do we have here?" asked Sirine to her followers. Mithana glared at the older girl. The other faeries just continued laughing while Mithana shivered at the sound.

Mithana watched her cousin warily. Sirine was at least a head taller than her. Her violet hair was cut short in the typical dark faerie fashion. Her purple eyes flashed with malice and Mithana couldn't help but be afraid. Sirine had hurt her more times than she cared to count and she had a nasty feeling that this time would be no different.

"Go away Sirine," muttered the girl. "I haven't done anything." Sirine lashed out, knocking her little cousin off her feet. The other girls in the hall stopped and stared at the faeries.

"You speak when spoken to brat." hissed Sirine.

"Brat? Me?" questioned Mithana as she struggled to keep her face as innocent looking as possible. "If I'm the brat around here, I would hate to find out what you are… cousin." Now she'd done it. She'd dared play the cousin card.

Sirine grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. "You shut up. You and I both know you can't do magic so it would be very easy to put you in your place."

Mithana's mind was racing. She knew what she had to do. Looking over her cousin's shoulder as if to look at something she said loudly

"Oh, hello principle Brianna."

When the five faeries whirled around, their eyes trying to locate the teacher, Mithana did the only thing she could do. She ran.

Lithine, Ariella and Nova were casually talking about their classes during the midmorning break. The girls were discussing some homework their history teacher had given them when the sound of spells being cast and yells sounded throughout the hall they were in. The faeries looked around to see the little dark faerie who had been bullied at dinner the night before run around the corner. Dark spells followed her as she dodged around startled faeries. The five dark faeries who had been the ones who bullied her at dinner ran around the corner after her. They were the ones who had been casting the spells.

The little faerie had almost outrun her tormentors when a ball of darkness hit her square in the back. She tumbled forward with a cry and the five older faeries instantly surrounded her.

Rage welled up in Lithine's chest as she watched the bullies launch several more spells at their victim who was clearly unable to block them. She felt Ariella and Nova stiffen in anger as they too watched the scene. Something snapped inside the light faerie. Before she knew what she was doing, she was pushing her way through the dark faeries to stand by the little faerie's side. She was surprised to see that Ariella and Nova had followed her.

"Stop it!" demanded Lithine to the dark faeries. The older faeries gasped in rage and several even conjured up balls of darkness which they threatened to hurl at her.

"Keep out of this light faerie." snarled the faerie who seemed to be the leader. She spat the words 'light faerie' as if they left a bad taste in her mouth. "This is no business of yours and if you know what's good for you, you'll leave."

Lithine could almost feel the heat radiating off of Nova as the fire faerie's temper flared and she knew Ariella was just as mad. She turned toward the dark faeries and gave them her sweetest smile.

"No I don't think we will. Wait, I have a better idea." The dark faeries glared at her. "Why don't we give you a taste of your own medicine instead?"

Signaled by her words, Ariella and Nova reacted when she did. The dark faeries soon found themselves bombarded by an assortment of light, fire and air spells. Muttering curses, the bullies swiftly made their retreat, but not before giving their attackers a detailed lesson in very colorful vocabulary.

With them gone, the three friends turned toward the little dark faerie, who was sitting on the ground looking at them with a mixture of horror and disbelief.

"Are you okay?" questioned Ariella as she helped the girl to her feet. The girl only stared at her with wide eyes. "Come on. Let's go outside."

"Bubut wwhy," stuttered the little faerie. She was instantly shushed by the persistent air faerie and half led, half dragged outside by her rescuers.

The three faeries led the dark faerie out into the nearest courtyard. When they reached the courtyard, they sat down beneath a large tree which grew in the middle of the lawn. When they looked up, they saw that the little dark faerie was still staring at them.

"Would you please sit down," begged Nova as she looked up ward. "You're hurting my neck."

The faerie seemed to come to her senses. "Why did you do that?" she demanded. Lithine looked up, surprised at the question.

"What do you mean why?" she asked. "It was wrong. No faerie should be able to do that and get away with it."

"Do you even know who those girls were?" asked the faerie.

"What does it matter?" demanded Nova. "It was wrong and nobody else was about to stop it."

"You don't understand," said the girl, her voice soft. "Those girls are as mean as mean gets. Nobody stops them from doing what they want unless they have a death wish. Some of the teachers don't even bother with them anymore."

"Well what did you do to get on their bad side then," asked Ariella. The friends looked at the little faerie expectantly. The dark faerie looked down at the ground at her feet. Sadness filled her voice when she answered them.

"They don't need an excuse to pick on me, but there are plenty of reasons." she replied. "The main one is that I'm Sirine's cousin. Sirine is their leader."

"What?" cried Lithine startled. "It's bad enough that they picked on you in the first place but it's even worse if you're actually related."

"Listen," said the faerie, her voice suddenly stern. "If you three want to live peaceful lives while at this school then stay away from me. Those girls are only a fraction of the people who hate me."

"Who else hates you?" inquired Nova. Sometimes her curiosity got the better of her.

"Just about ever dark faerie in this school hates me," replied the girl nonchalantly. "Wait, scratch that. Just about every dark faerie inexistence hates me."

"Why," asked Ariella puzzled.

"Because I don't…" the girl left her sentence unfinished and continued with a new one. "Why am I even telling you this?"

"Because we asked," replied Nova, her voice calm.

"It's none of your business!" Without another word, the faerie began to stalk back toward the school building.

"Hey!" called Lithine as a question came to her. The dark faerie turned. "What's your name?"

For a second, the light faerie thought she wouldn't answer. Then she heard a name spoken only loud enough for those three to hear.

"Mithana."

Lithine went to her history class feeling a slight bit of pity for the dark faerie. She knew it must be awful to have her sisters hate her. One thing that made her happy was knowing that she had done the right thing by helping the little faerie. She felt wonderful and was abnormally cheerful throughout the class. A thought came to her as she read her assignment from her textbook.

Perhaps she could persuade Nova and Ariella to sit with the girl during dinner tonight. After all it must be awful to sit alone. She never once stopped to remember that she was a light faerie and that the other girl was a dark faerie. For some reason, it didn't seem to matter much anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

Mithana rushed through the halls of the Academy as she desperately tried to keep sudden tears at bay. She threw the door which led to the dark faerie dormitory open and took the stairs two at a time. When she reached her room, she shut her door tightly and let her tears fall down her face.

She couldn't understand why those faeries had helped her but she wished they hadn't. It was humiliating enough to be picked on but to have to rely on someone else for protection was even worse. She sighed as she sat down on her bed. She recalled the question the fire faerie had asked her.

She had been truthful when she said most if not all dark faeries hated her. What she had stopped herself from saying was the reason. She hated her magic. She hated everything about her element. Since that fateful day she had seen another dark faerie cast evil spells over another faerie she had refused to use and practice dark magic. Because of this, she was most likely the weakest dark faerie to ever live in Faerieland.

When her family had discovered that she hated darkness they had shunned her and called her traitor. It was no different with other dark faeries that were not related to her.

And then, there was that other reason. The one she refused to think about. The one that made even the nicest and most accepting of dark faeries look at her with disgust and hate.

The little faerie lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. She ignored the bell which summoned students to class. She wouldn't go. Her teacher would probably be angry with her no doubt but she didn't care all that much. Especially since that class was mathematics.

Lithine, Nova and Ariella walked to dinner after their history class. Nova was trying to solve some pathetically easy questions and having no luck with it. It had stunned her friends to find out that their fire faerie companion was horrible at history and she hated it as well.

Lithine only listen partially while Ariella gave Nova the correct answers as they entered the dining hall. Her caramel colored eyes scanned the crowd for one person in particular. When the light faerie didn't find that person, she shrugged and grabbed one of the trays.

She had just finished getting her food when she saw a familiar flash of black and purple. When she turned to get a better look, she saw Mithana the dark faerie slump deeper into her chair as she tried to hide behind the table in the far corner of the room.

"Oh look," she said to the other girls casually. "There's our little friend." Nova and Ariella looked in the direction of the dark faerie.

"Well, what do you know," smiled Nova. "Come on, let's go sit with her."

Both Lithine and Ariella stared at the fire faerie, surprised that she wanted to sit with the dark faerie. Slowly, smiles appeared on their faces and they followed their friend over to the table.

Mithana glared at them when they approached.

"What do I have to do to get rid of you three?" she demanded crossly.

"Hello to you too," said Lithine casually as she put her tray down. The little dark faerie put her head in her hands and began to mutter under her breath.

"Sorry, didn't catch that," smiled Ariella as she sat down. Mithana gave her an annoyed look.

"How did your classes go?" questioned Lithine innocently. Mithana ignored her and Nova talked in her place.

The girls chatted about teachers and what homework they had been given. Mithana, who was looking humiliated, said nothing throughout the whole meal. When Lithine and the others got up, the dark faerie didn't follow. The light faerie turned toward her.

"Are you coming?" she asked.

"Why can't you understand that associating with me is asking for trouble?" Mithana shot back.

"Trouble?" questioned Nova with a smile. "Who cares?"

"You're all insane!" snapped Mithana. Despite this however, she stood up and followed them out of the cafeteria.

When the four faeries reached their lockers, Mithana turned towards them. Lithine prepared herself for another argument.

"Listen," began the little faerie. "I appreciate the help you gave me but I'm being serious when I tell you to stay away from me. It won't do either you or me any good."

"Mithana," said Lithine with a sigh. "We know you're being serious but to be perfectly honest, we don't care. It doesn't matter to us if you aren't liked by the other dark faeries. We're not trying to act brave when we say that if you're cousin comes back, we'll fight her. She was wrong to bully you like that and we intend to prove it to her."

Mithana looked stunned. She looked down, her cheeks going red with shame. When she spoke, her voice was very quiet.

"You don't understand." she said. "Even if Sirine did leave me alone, you still wouldn't want to hang around with me."

"Why not," asked Ariella.

"I hate my magic!" snapped Mithana. "Why would people like you, want to be near a weakling like me?" She turned toward Ariella and Lithine. "You've seen me in spell casting. You know I can't do anything when it comes to magic."

Lithine had to admit that she had been surprised when she saw that Mithana couldn't even summon darkness. A faerie who couldn't summon her own element was, well, kind of pathetic. Mithana saw the look on her face.

"You see," she said, almost sadly. "That's…" Her voice was cut off by the ringing of the bell. All four girls jumped at the sound. Mithana glanced at them before quickly turning to leave.

"Wait," called Nova. The dark faerie looked at her. "What class do you have?"

"I have my free period now," muttered the little faerie. She winced when a huge smile broke out on Nova's face and instantly regretted telling her what class she had. Just her luck that Nova had the same free period as she did. After hugging both Lithine and Ariella, the fire faerie ran to catch up.

"Are you any good at history?" she asked. Mithana shrugged. "Good. You can help me then. Let's go out to the courtyard." The little dark faerie knew it would useless trying to get rid the persistent faerie, so she followed without protest.

Mithana soon found herself sitting cross-legged on the well-cared for grass with a text book in one hand and a worksheet in the other as she tried to help Nova finish her history homework. She had just finished helping her answer the last question when a voice sounded behind them.

"Well, if it isn't two of our favorite people." sneered Sirine to her friends. Mithana jumped at the sound of her cousin. Nova turned around and gave a falsely sweet smile to the dark faeries.

"Can we help you with something?" she asked.

"Actually, I was hoping you would chat with my friends here." smiled Sirine. "But I would like a word with my cousin." Mithana dodged away from Sirine, but the older faerie was quicker. She grabbed the little faerie's arm and began to drag her away from the group.

Seeing what the dark faerie had done, Nova leapt to her feet, a fireball hovered several inches above her palm. Sirine's friends hissed and immediately conjured their own balls of darkness. Seeing the fire faerie's danger, Mithana shook her head to indicate she was okay. She let Sirine pull her until they were well out of earshot.

"You little brat," hissed Sirine. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What do you mean," retorted Mithana. "I'm not doing anything."

"You know what I mean," snarled her cousin. Her grip on Mithana's arm was becoming increasingly painful. "Why are you hanging out with them?"

"It wasn't my idea," snapped the little dark faerie.

"Liar!" Sirine twisted Mithana's arm so that the little faerie gasped in pain. "Stop hanging around with them or…"

"Or what?" questioned Mithana. "Since when do you care about what I do? Did you have a sudden change of heart or did your mother put you up to it? I'm guessing it was the latter."

Sirine snarled as she knocked her cousin off her feet. She stood towering over her as she spoke

"If I see you with them one more time," she hissed through clenched teeth. "I swear I'll make you regret it." Without another word, the dark faerie strode off toward the building while beckoning her friends to follow.

Once the dark faeries were out of sight, Nova quickly made her way over to Mithana. She helped the little faerie up, only to be shrugged off once Mithana had regained her footing.

"Are you all right?" questioned the fire faerie.

"I'm fine," snapped Mithana. "Never been better." Knowing she was being rude but not caring, the dark faerie walked over to where their school things lay scattered on the ground and instantly began shoving them back into her book bag. She froze when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw that it was Nova. Concern filled the fire faerie's eyes.

"Don't listen to her." she said. "Don't give her the satisfaction of knowing she got to you. What she says probably isn't true."

Mithana looked at the faerie. Should she tell her about her family? Should she tell her about Sirine's threat? At that moment, Mithana's dark faerie pride kicked in. No, she thought. She wouldn't, or couldn't understand.

Another voice spoke in Mithana's head. One that she rarely ever listened to though it was probably the voice with more sense.

How do you know she wouldn't understand? it snapped at her. You'll never know until you say something.


	4. Chapter 4

As the days went by, Mithana became more and more relaxed around Lithine, Ariella and Nova. She was now used to having them pop up out of no where and ask her how her day had been going. Though she found them quite annoying at times, she had to admit it was nice to have someone to talk to. All memory of her cousin's threat was erased from her mind.

As for the others, they tried to get Mithana to talk to them at every turn. Lithine and Ariella studied with her during their spell casting class while Nova would try to start conversations with the reserved dark faerie during their free period. But something kept the little faerie from ever speaking too much. Lithine began to get the feeling that she was hiding something.

Sirine and her evil friends continued to torment the little dark faerie whenever they could. Though they never approached her when she was with the others, it was near impossible for Mithana to be with one of her new friends all the time.

As for Mithana, the dark faerie took the beatings without complaint. She never tried to defend herself or fight back. It shocked her friends and they often tried to help her with her spell casting lessons so she would be able to protect herself the next time her cousin came to call. The dark faerie however, couldn't, or wouldn't, cast the spells. It wasn't until after yet another one of these failed lessons when Lithine finally decided to ask Mithana about it.

"Enough!" said Mithana wearily. "I can't do it and that's that."

Her friends gave defeated sighs. Lithine gave Mithana an annoyed look.

"Are you even trying to complete this homework?" she demanded as she waved their spell casting assignment in front of her friend. The girl shrugged.

"Not really."

"But why not?" asked Ariella in her quiet voice.

"You already know why." snapped Mithana.

"You can't keep hating your magic like this," said Nova sternly. "Why do you hate it anyway?" The dark faerie glared at them.

"It doesn't matter," she said. She turned away from them and strode down the hall toward the dining hall. The bell for dinner had rung several minutes before.

The girls looked at each other and sighed. They then proceeded to follow their friend. They had just turned the corner when they stopped short. The little dark faerie was cowering away from Sirine. Her cousin's friends were no where to be seen. Ariella and Nova instantly began to move forward to help their friend but Lithine grabbed them and pressed her finger to her lips, telling them to be quiet.

"But we need to help her," hissed Nova. The light faerie shook her head.

"I want to find out what's going on between those two." she whispered back. "Listen." Ariella and Nova looked at each other and shrugged before turning to listen. Though Mithana's voice was to quiet for them to understand, Sirine's words were easy enough to hear.

"I told you to stop hanging around with them!" she snarled. Mithana replied with something that sounded like an insult and 'your kind'.

"My kind?" questioned Sirine. "My kind is supposed to be your kind! Your mother would be…" She was cut off by an unexpected shout from Mithana.

"I don't care about what she would think!" she snapped at her stunned cousin. "It was her fault I ended up like this. If she and that witch she had for a sister hadn't…" It was at that moment that Sirine slapped a hand over her younger cousin's mouth. Her eyes were wide with what almost seemed like fear. When she spoke, it was barely more than a whisper and the three hidden faeries had to strain to hear it.

"Do you just realize what you almost just said?" she asked, her voice deadly. "Don't ever do that again. If someone heard you, my mom would kill you for saying it and me for allowing you to say it." She paused, her eyes glaring into Mithana's face. She gave the girl a disgusted look.

"At one time I thought you might turn out like her but now I realize you're just a weakling who is not fit to bear her mother's name." Without another word, Sirine stormed away in the opposite direction. Mithana watched her go. Her violet eyes were bright with tears but the little girl quickly dashed them away.

She was about to continue on toward the dining hall when a flash of gold caught her eye. She froze as humiliation welled up within her. She knew of only one person who would have followed her and be of the light element. She also knew that that particular girl was most likely accompanied by two more.

"Did you three enjoy listening in on that little chat?" she snarled. She couldn't keep her anger under control. She glared at her friends as they walked out of their hiding place.

"Are you happy now?" she demanded. "Now that you know why everyone hates me." The others gave her odd looks. It was Ariella who spoke.

"You do realize that that whole conversation made absolutely no sense to us." she said simply.

"I… what?" Mithana looked at them confused.

"The only thing we managed to decipher was that you didn't like your mom and her sister and that your mom was the reason you are the way you are." said Nova. "I don't know why you're complaining." Mithana just stared, apparently not grasping what the fire faerie was trying to say.

"What she means," explained Lithine. "Is that we don't know why you're angry at your mother because she raised you the way she did. You are by far the nicest dark faerie we know."

Mithana stared at her friends. "They don't understand." she thought. "They don't realize that I meant my mother was the reason I hate my magic. They think I want to be like other dark faeries!"

Ariella must have realized that they had gotten it wrong. She looked at the little dark faerie and asked

"What did you mean by that then?"

Mithana turned away. She had been hoping she would never have to tell anyone this. She still didn't have to. But didn't they deserve to know, after being so nice to her? She looked at her friends and something inside her cracked. She couldn't stop herself and before she knew it, she was telling them everything.

"When I was really little, my mom left me in an alleyway near the marketplace in Faerieland. She told me I needed to stay there and that she would be back later to get me. I believed her. I believed everything she said. But, the thing was, she never came back. I was scared, so I went looking for her." She paused, afraid to go on.

"Did you find her?" asked Nova. The other threw her looks which clearly told her to be quiet. Mithana gave a strained sort of smile.

"Oh, I found her alright. But she wasn't alone. She was with another faerie, an earth faerie to be exact. And…" She stopped again. Tears forced their way through her eyes. "She was hurting her! My mother, who I always thought was so kind, was torturing an innocent faerie!" Tears streamed down the little faerie's face and her friends could see that she had been keeping this bottled in for a very long time.

"I tried to get her to stop but," Mithana shrugged. "We made enough noise arguing though. Apparently, my mother was on the run from the queen. Some of the royal guards heard us and arrested my mother. I was returned to my aunt's house to live with her and my older cousin, Sirine." She made a face. "I certainly did not get a warm welcome. My aunt was in a rage. She told me how I had ruined everything. I was supposed to be something like a decoy. My mother told me to stay in a place she knew the queen's guards would come looking for her" She stopped, as if remembering. "The only thing was was that I didn't stay there."

"Your mother wanted you to get captured?" gasped Nova. Mithana shrugged.

"I was so little then that the only thing that would happen would be that the guards would take me to my aunt's house who was supposedly still loyal to the queen." The look on the faerie's face told them that her aunt certainly was anything but loyal.

"What did you ruin?" asked Ariella. "You were just a little faerie then. How could you ruin something so important?"

"Don't you see?" asked Mithana. "The dark faeries were planning a rebellion and my mother and aunt were the leaders. It was because of me she was arrested. The dark faeries didn't dare continue with their plans because it was certain that the queen and her council had figured them out using the information they got from my mother. That is why dark faeries hate me. It was made well known by my family how I shamed them."

"But not all dark faeries were part of the rebellion were they?" asked Lithine. "I mean, some of them had to be on the queen's side. Why would they hate you?" Mithana looked at her as if she had just overlooked the obvious.

"Because of my mother." she stated simply.

"But…"

"I was expected to be like her. To hate other elements and to be evil." said the little faerie. "Why wouldn't they? I was named after my mother and I was being raised by her sister, who, though not as clever, was just as evil and cruel as she was."

"But why would they blame you for crimes you didn't commit?" demanded the light faerie.

"For the same reason faeries of the lighter elements think all dark faeries are evil, I guess."

"But what reason is that?"

Mithana looked at them as if about to answer, then shrugged.

"How am I supposed to know?" asked Mithana. "I'm at the wrong end of both deals. I'm a dark faerie, so other elements hate me. I'm descended from an evil faerie, so half of my element hates me for that. I caused the rebellion of my element to fail so the other half hates me also. You tell me why the world is so unfair."

"But we don't know the answer to that," said Ariella.

"Well, neither do I. I suppose that that's just the way it is."

"But that's so unfair!"

"No kidding."


End file.
